I am interested in helping create a place where people with depression can come talk to someone at any hour.
Answer
To get an idea of what services are already offered at UHD, take a look at what is available through Student Counseling Services http://www.uhd.edu/counseling/ . You may be able to get some good input if you discuss your ideas for your project with the staff there.
Next, I suggest you do some research with our Psychology resources. From the library homepage http://www.uhd.edu/library/ click on the dark gray Research Guides tab. Then choose the link for Guides by Subject. Scroll down to the Psychology link. This link will take you to the library’s Psychology Research Guide. The box in the middle of the page lists a number of good psychology databases. I suggest you try these databases: PsychInfo, Academic Search Complete, and SocINDEX.
Try some of these search terms:
depression counseling
mental health
free treatment
psychotherapy
In terms of how well a service like you describe would help a community, you may only be able to get subjective information from a similar service that has succeeded in their own community. Your project may require calling different counseling centers to see what has worked for them. They may be able to give you statistics or studies from their center’s work.